Lotte's fall practice was held on the 9th at Zozo Marine Stadium.

During last year's fall practice, Kyota Fujiwara focused on hitting inside balls in the opposite direction from center fielder, and even during pre-game batting practice this season, he focused on hitting in the opposite direction from center fielder. Looking at the batting practice over the two days of fall practice, there were many hits that were pulled.

Fujiwara explained, "The manager told me to try to hit a home run home run with a high probability, so I'm trying to determine the angle and ball that will allow me to pull the ball and hit home run."

He has said up until now that "if I swing the way I want to, I can hit long hits." Regarding that, he said, "When I was in good form, I was able to hit long hits this year, and I think I have, but I was always conscious of hitting in the opposite direction, and I was hitting in a way that would result in potential hits and weak hits. That's how I did it during the season, but from this fall I'm trying to swing in a way that will basically result in long hits." He aims to improve his long-hitting ability.

Listening to him, it seems that he is thinking of changing his style to aim for long hits, rather than just adding something extra to what he has been doing up until now. Fujiwara said firmly, "That's what I think for now."

When asked if there is a possibility that he will make some fine adjustments while facing pitcher in exhibition games during next year's spring training camp, Fujiwara summarized his current thoughts by saying, "Yes, it will come together as I practice with actual game pitches, so I will continue to work in that manner this offseason."

◆ Tomosugi: "I want to do everything to the best of my ability"

Atsuki Tomosugi, who is in the same grade as Fujiwara, focused on his right foot in both batting and defense last fall, and will continue to do so this fall. "I'd like to reflect on this year's performance and keep that in mind as I look at the data," he said.

Regarding what he wants to improve in autumn practice, he vowed to improve his level of running, offense and defense, saying, "It's everything, but I also have to swing a lot of batting, and I have a lot to do in both defense and base running.

◆ Sawada: "So that we can improve the accuracy of various things."

Keisuke Sawada worked on slider enthusiastically in last year's fall practice, and this season it has become an important pitch that supports pitch.

He said, "I'm going to work on everything this fall to improve the accuracy of everything." fork was generally pitched in the 130 km/h range, but in a game Rakuten on September 14th, he threw a 122 km/h pitch to Voit on the third pitch after a one-ball, one-strike count. "It's slow because I don't want to get the height wrong. I really want to throw it faster, but I think it's slow because I don't want to swing my arm and throw it high," he explained the reason for this in an interview on September 28th.

When asked again about the speed of fork, Sawada said enthusiastically, "I think it's a challenge for this fall and for next year and beyond, so I want it to be fast and drop. I'll work hard to achieve that."

Interview and text by Yuta Iwashita